"I freely acknowledge that," said the stately 71-year-old, who served as deputy prime minister and minister for trade from 1996 to 1999, "but I always tried to cover the situation with a careful choice of tie."

Not one to settle on a daily routine of conservative blue - "I told Tony Abbott once that wearing the same colour tie every day can annoy people" - Mr Fischer chose instead to make a statement with a range of colourful ties.

In 2015 he donated 171 ties to the Museum of Australian Democracy and this week 35 of his favourite ones have gone on display in a new exhibition Finders Keepers: Collectors and their stories.

Revealing the stories of five fascinating Australians and their collections, the exhibition asks visitors to think about why museums collect, why we collect and what our collections say about us and our country.

For Mr Fischer, his tie collection was literally "the ties that bind", he said, drawing attention to his particular passions, whether that was the army, railways, or wool.

"I would step out in ties with a method to my madness," he said.

"If I was going to address the RSL conference I'd wear an army tie, a railway conference wear one of these with trains, there was turmoil in the wool industry when I was in federal parliament so as some sort of protectant - which never really did protect me from what was flying around the room - I'd wear a tie related to wool."

Other Australians featured in the exhibition are Neville Bonner, the first indigenous parliamentarian, his collection of personal items, from boots to pillows, highlight the man more than the politician; technician Neil Baker has rescued parliamentary telephones from throughout the decades; activist Anne Picot has a range of protest t-shirts; and former Senator Kay Patterson has a collection of 324 Parliament House souvenirs.

Patterson, who was a Liberal senator from 1987 to 2008, became a collector somewhat by accident.

"I was given the first piece by my soulmate, the late Professor Eric Glasgow, in the late 1980s," she said.

"Little was he - or I - to know that it was the beginning of a collection.

"Scouring antique shops he found more and more and, as colleagues, staff and others saw them, the collection grew like Topsy."

One of Ms Patterson's favourite pieces, of the 95 on display, is a delicate ashtray, decorated with Old Parliament House.

"They'd never sell anything like this in a gift shop these days," she said.

Finders Keepers reveals the collector in us all and offers visitors the opportunity to share their own collection story. Families can explore the exhibition with MoAD's new collector kits, backpacks full of activities that accompany the exhibition.

Open 9am to 5pm daily, entry to Finders Keepers is free after museum admission. Visit moadoph.gov.au